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Description: | Photocopy (200pp) of a good, amusing ms account describing his service in the Royal Naval Division Engineers September 1914 - February 1919 beginning with his enlistment aged 35 in the Signal Company in September 1914 and training near Dover and Walmer before moving in February 1915 to Blandford from where he was sent in March to Egypt and in April to Skyros on his way to Gallipoli where he landed at Helles and was attached to the 29th Divisional Artillery HQ until October when he returned to his own Divisional HQ shortly before being wounded, after treatment in the Royal Naval Hospital, Malta, he was sent to the RND base camp at Sidi Bishr near Alexandria in January 1916 before rejoining the Division at Lemnos in February where he remained until their departure for France in May, arriving in the area northwest of Arras he joined the 189th Brigade HQ and after the Battle of the Somme was sent with the Division to St Quentin until in January 1917 they returned to Beaucourt, after returning to the area northwest of Arras the Division went to Ypres in October and in December he was promoted sergeant and attached to Divisional HQ where he was gassed being sent to the RND Signal School in January 1918 to recover, after returning briefly to Divisional HQ in February he settled at the Signal School from March until its closure after the armistice in December when he returned again to Divisional HQ from where he was demobilised in February 1919, with useful details about conditions both at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, the difficulties about maintaining signals communications, the chaos of army life and his successful use of 'initiative' to improve his lot, the character of his officers and fellow NCOs and his demobilisation and including a reference to A P Herbert's novel 'The Secret Battle'
Cataloguer NS
Catalogue date 1990-08-10 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Rowatt, T | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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